Sideline parent selfie

I spend every Saturday and every Sunday morning outside. Standing still. In wind and rain, chilled to the bone and soaked to the skin. Football and rugby. I’m there to support my boys and I love it. But it’s really, really flipping cold.

Even in April it’s be cold. The rugby ground has its own microclimate which is at least five degrees lower than the rest of the world. You drive home and you look at the temperature in the car in disbelief. 12 degrees. TWELVE DEGREES? How can it be 12 degrees? Because it feels about minus seven.

So I do the only thing I can do – I wrap up warm. I put on all the layers it’s possible for one human being to wear, then I add a couple more. Because you can never have too many layers. And if, by some miracle, it does warm up a bit, you can take them off. But you can never add them if you don’t have them in the first place.

Last Sunday was icy. The sky was blue, but the air was biting.

And fellow rugby mum, Tara from Sticky Fingers, posted a selfie of her wrapped-up self on the touchline. Inspired, I posted one myself.

And here is that actual selfie from Sunday. Working down from the top, there’s a Superdry (what else?) hat and a Superdry coat. Under the coat you can glimpse a (you’ve guessed it) Superdry pink hoodie. Not visible under that is a jumper and a short sleeved Tshirt (Superdry, what else?) and a long-sleeved Tshirt.

I usually wear jeans to rugby, but on Sunday I couldn’t even bear the thought of putting them on. They’re so damn cold. So I went with jogging bottoms from you know where, with my thermal leggings underneath. I usually wear Hunter wellies (bought because they last, not to fit in with the posh mums, and anyway I wear pink not black or green), but they leave my toes like blocks of ice, even when it’s 12 degrees and even when I’m wearing two pairs of socks. So I went with walking boots with my two pairs of socks.

There was no colour co-ordination whatsoever, just a desperate jumble of clothing that would keep me warm. And you can just imagine how good I looked. Especially when I was introduced to yet another new mum from the poshest school in town who had managed to wear jeans and leather knee-high boots.

But did I care? No way. Because I was warm(ish).

So this is my sideline parent selfie. Can you share yours Stressy Mummy?

Ha ha that’s perfect, thanks for joining in! I sometimes see ‘newcomer’ parents around the pitch and want to save them YEARS of heartache by going up to them and saying ‘you need to buy: this this and this’!!

You’re welcome, what a fab idea to write about our dedication (and the cold!). You’re right, it took me a year or so to work out just how many layers was the optimum number and I still don’t think I’ve got the footwear sorted!

Thanks! I nearly tagged you, but I thought I hadn’t seen much about football from you lately, that would explain why! We actually both go to football and rugby. The only thing I don’t bother with is football training, but I go to all the matches, plus rugby matches AND training!

Wellies are the worst things in the cold – snow days are the worst for that! I can’t see myself on the sidelines as my kiddos haven’t shown much interest in sport – which makes me a bit sad as it was all I did at their age, maybe it will come in time? You look really young in your pic btw 🙂